Chicken Soup

I love to watch the Food Network. Up until last summer, I had never watched this channel before. However, it has good cooking tips and gives me good menu ideas. Since I really enjoying cooking, this channel is fun to watch (even though my husband does not care for it). One of my favorite cooks is Paula Dean. She is entertaining to watch, and she makes some good food too. One of Paula's recipes that I really like is the The Lady's Chicken Noodle Soup. It is easy to make, and it taste good too.

Ingredients

Stock:
1 (2 1/2 to 3-pound) fryer chicken, cut up
3 1/2 quarts water
1 onion, peeled and diced
1 1/2 to 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon lemon-pepper seasoning
3 cloves garlic, minced
4 bay leaves
3 chicken bouillon cubes
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Soup:
2 cups sliced carrots
2 cups sliced celery, with leafy green tops
2 1/2 cups uncooked egg noodles
1 cup sliced mushrooms
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
1/3 cup cooking sherry
2 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary leaves
1 cup grated Parmesan, optional
3/4 cup heavy cream, optional
Seasoning salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Crusty French bread, for serving

Directions
For the stock: add all ingredients to a soup pot. Cook until chicken is tender, about 35 to 45 minutes. Remove chicken from pot and set aside to cool. Remove and discard bay leaves and onion. You should have approximately 3 quarts of stock. When chicken is cool enough to touch, pick bones clean, discarding bones, skin, and cartilage. Set chicken aside.

For the soup: bring stock back to a boil, add carrots, and cook for 3 minutes. Add celery and continue to cook for 5 to 10 minutes. Add egg noodles and cook according to directions on package. When noodles are done, add chicken, mushrooms, parsley, sherry and rosemary. Add Parmesan and cream, if using. Cook for another 2 minutes. Adjust seasoning, if needed, by adding seasoning salt and pepper. Enjoy along with a nice hot crusty loaf of French bread.

This would serve about 12- 15 people. I recently made this for a crowd, and I added more noodles in order to make sure I had enough food. Instead of French bread I served grilled cheeses. I used Havarti cheese, but any kind of cheese is good!

Enjoy the cooler weather. Make some soup!

I also recieved one more birthday present this past weekend. My sister gave me these pretty green place mats. They look great with my china, and they look good on my table. Thanks SB!